The role of soft photon injection and heating in 21 cm cosmology

The ARCADE radio excess and EDGES measurement remain puzzling. A link between the two has been previously considered, however, in this work we highlight an important related effect that was not analysed in detail before. By performing cosmological thermalization calculations with soft photon injection using cosmotherm, we show that for the 21 cm signal generation, the interplay between enhanced radio spectral distortions and the associated heating can hide a significant radio excess before the reionization era. We illustrate this effect for a simple power-law soft photon source in decaying particle scenarios. Even if simplistic, the uncovered link between CMB spectral distortions and 21 cm cosmology should apply to a much broader range of scenarios. This could significantly affect the constraints derived from existing and future 21 cm observations on the evolution of the ambient radio background. In particular, scenarios that would be ruled out by existing data without heating could become viable solutions once the heating is accounted for in the modelling. Our calculations furthermore highlight the importance of global 21 cm observations reaching into the dark ages, where various scenarios can potentially be distinguished.

Automated summary

This study reveals the link between CMB spectral distortions and 21 cm cosmology, highlighting the interplay between radio spectral distortions and associated heating. This discovery could hide a significant radio excess before reionization, and significantly impact the constraints from existing and future 21 cm observations on the radio background evolution.